Our family moved from Australia to Berlin in January 2005 for a 4 year contract, which we extended for a bit longer. Here are our adventures of our time in Berlin, as well as day to day things that happen!

Saturday, 31 July 2010

Karlstad

We crossed over the border of Norway to Sweden and stopped at Karlstadt overnight.

Once we got over the border to Sweden we passed lots of farms, and we saw lots of signs for Loppis. We assumed the word Loppis was for some sort of berry. We had bought raspberries and cherries from roadside stands in Norway, and we were hoping to stop off near a farm and buy some Loppis. We took guesses of what Loppis was, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, cherries....but the entire way to Karlstad, we saw lots of signs, but no produce. When we got to the hotel in Karlstad we asked the lady at the desk to tell us what Loppis was. A Flea Market! She thought it was funny we thought that it was some type of berry. Second Hand Markets are very popular on the weekends.

Karlstad sits alongside Sweden's longest river, the Klarälven, which flows into Sweden's largest lake, Vänern.
After dropping off the bags into our hotel, we headed for a 5km walk around parts of the river.

We love the colour red in these Swedish homes (and we saw alot in Norway as well). The red colour came from the copper mines in Falun. The colour is called "Falu rödfärg" in Swedish, or Falu/Falun Red.

The walk along the river was great. Karlstad prides itself on having over 90 km of bike/rollerblading paths. It was a pity we didn't have our bikes, the paths are fantastic. Alongside the road, in street malls and parks there are free bike pumps, in case you have a flat tyre along the way.

Cameron spent his time searching for grasshoppers, and was most disgusted when this one pooped on him!

We headed back to our hotel, through the shopping district. Rea is Swedish for Sale, I am not sure what is on sale in this store!

We are lost for words on these velour jumpsuits. It's a toss up whether you would be seen in one of these or a snuggie??? We saw them in windows in Norway as well, and we even saw a girl in a purple and white one. These ones were for adult women, I am hoping they are not the new fashion craze, because I don't know anyone who would look remotely good in these!